"Siddharth Mathur" <smathur@removethis.softhome.net> wrote in message news:<bmk1ea$511$1@oasis.ccit.arizona.edu>...
> Hello all,
>
> I want to buy a TI or Analog DSP dev board and start learning some
> assembly/C level programming for it. I am very comfortable doing DSP
> algorithms in MATLAB and also have decent C skills.
> My initial projects would be related to speech and audio processing, so the
> board should have capabilities in that area.
>
> After reading previous threads on comp.dsp, Analog's 21161N-EZLite looks
> like a good bet. I also read that Analog's instruction set is easier/more
> intuitive than TI's. However, I am under the impression that TI is more
> widely used in the industry, so experience with TI boards may be more
> "marketable". Should I buy and learn to work on a TI board with speech/audio
> capabilities for this reason? If yes, any recommendations for a TI kit?
>
> Also, my budget is ~$250, should I buy the board direct from Analog/TI or
> from a third-party? I would prefer one with a graphical IDE.
>
>
> TIA,
> Siddharth
I'd say the TI C6711 DSK is a good start. It comes with built in JTAG
emulator
and bundled with Code Composer Studio that is a coplete GUI with
debugger and
compiler. The C6711DSK has built in speech codec with 8KHz sampling
rate.
Regarding TIs instruction set being more difficult that analogs I'd
say that
is based on earlier TI DSP generations like C20 and c50 that are a bit
cryptical. The C6000 architecture is a completely new design and is
much cleaner. It has a modern load/store RISC intruction set.
It is not trivial to program in assembly since it has VLIW instruction
scheduling but in my opinion it makes it more interesting. There are
tools to make things easier (linear assembly).
Compared with the EZlite from analog I'd say the tools is quite
similar (both
CCS and VisualDSP are heavily influenced by VC++).
TI has more resources like examples and application notes on their
website.
Also, if you search amazon.com you can eaisily find three books
specific to
DSP on TI C6000, my brief search turned up nothing for the Sharc.
Which is more "Marketable" depends on what market you plan to work in.
TI is very dominant in telecom, not only in cellphone but also in
infrastructure. A huge part of the worlds cellular base stations use
C6000 chips. In audio and medical Analog is stronger.
/Regards, P�r LIgander
Reply by Bernhard Holzmayer●October 16, 20032003-10-16
Siddharth Mathur wrote:
> Hello all,
>
> I want to buy a TI or Analog DSP dev board and start learning some
> assembly/C level programming for it. I am very comfortable doing
> DSP algorithms in MATLAB and also have decent C skills.
> My initial projects would be related to speech and audio
> processing, so the board should have capabilities in that area.
>
> After reading previous threads on comp.dsp, Analog's 21161N-EZLite
> looks like a good bet. I also read that Analog's instruction set
> is easier/more intuitive than TI's. However, I am under the
> impression that TI is more widely used in the industry, so
> experience with TI boards may be more "marketable". Should I buy
> and learn to work on a TI board with speech/audio capabilities for
> this reason? If yes, any recommendations for a TI kit?
>
> Also, my budget is ~$250, should I buy the board direct from
> Analog/TI or from a third-party? I would prefer one with a
> graphical IDE.
>
>
> TIA,
> Siddharth
Hello Siddharth,
I've been working with a 21161N-EZLite board for quite a while,
and to my opinion it's a good choice.
An alternative choice might be the Blackfin boards.
Selection will probably depend on I/O requirements.
I don't think that TI would be preferable in your case , although TI
do an immense marketing effort to convince the world that they're
best.
In your case I'd buy the ADI board and not another of a third party
vendor, because ADI provides good support if you're using their IDE
in combination with their board. It might be more difficult to
investigate problems in combination with other boards.
And: ADI's EZLite-board comes with a (restricted) license for their
VisualDSP IDE. This is a good starting point.
Learning DSP programming is not so much learning the language of a
special DSP device. It's more understanding concepts and mapping of
mathematical algorithms to the realm of DSP code bordered by
hardware limitations. If you've done this with one DSP, it will be
easy to transfer your knowledge to any other DSP family.
You'll probably end up doing most of your coding in C/C++, not in
assembly, and you'll certainly find out that most of your code will
be completely portable between different DSPs, even if you transfer
it from ADI's Sharc to the TI-world.
Only very time-critical stuff and I/O handling will fail because of
big differences.
Bernhard
Reply by Al Clark●October 15, 20032003-10-15
"Siddharth Mathur" <smathur@removethis.softhome.net> wrote in
news:bmk1ea$511$1@oasis.ccit.arizona.edu:
> Hello all,
>
> I want to buy a TI or Analog DSP dev board and start learning some
> assembly/C level programming for it. I am very comfortable doing DSP
> algorithms in MATLAB and also have decent C skills.
> My initial projects would be related to speech and audio processing,
> so the board should have capabilities in that area.
>
> After reading previous threads on comp.dsp, Analog's 21161N-EZLite
> looks like a good bet. I also read that Analog's instruction set is
> easier/more intuitive than TI's. However, I am under the impression
> that TI is more widely used in the industry, so experience with TI
> boards may be more "marketable". Should I buy and learn to work on a
> TI board with speech/audio capabilities for this reason? If yes, any
> recommendations for a TI kit?
>
> Also, my budget is ~$250, should I buy the board direct from Analog/TI
> or from a third-party? I would prefer one with a graphical IDE.
>
>
> TIA,
> Siddharth
>
>
>
Siddharth,
If you look at market share, TI is the largest DSP company. However if
you factor out cell phones sales which account for 2/3 of all DSP sales,
then a different picture emerges:
TI and Analog both have about 30% of the "rest of the world" market.
Everyone else makes up the remainder.
You may have noticed that TI and Analog get about even exposure in this
group.
In the pro audio world, Analog Devices is clearly the new leader. This
was a space previously dominated by Motorola. At the recent AES
conference, Motorola didn't even have an exhibit booth and TI was
concentrating on non-DSP products. TI does have a strong speech
application market.
If you go with the Sharc, the 21161 is a good product. We sell several
products based on this DSP. The new ADSP-21262 is in most respects, a
better choice, We have a new dspstak 21262sx board and ADI will be
shipping their new 21262 EZ Kit in 4 to 6 weeks. The code is compatible
with the 21161 so either choice is probably fine for learning.
There are many reasons to choice one DSP supplier versus another. I made
my bet with Analog many years ago and it has been a great choice. From
strictly a business point of view, either Analog or TI would be a solid
choice.
--
Al Clark
Danville Signal Processing, Inc.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Purveyors of Fine DSP Hardware and other Cool Stuff
Available at http://www.danvillesignal.com
Reply by Siddharth Mathur●October 15, 20032003-10-15
Hello all,
I want to buy a TI or Analog DSP dev board and start learning some
assembly/C level programming for it. I am very comfortable doing DSP
algorithms in MATLAB and also have decent C skills.
My initial projects would be related to speech and audio processing, so the
board should have capabilities in that area.
After reading previous threads on comp.dsp, Analog's 21161N-EZLite looks
like a good bet. I also read that Analog's instruction set is easier/more
intuitive than TI's. However, I am under the impression that TI is more
widely used in the industry, so experience with TI boards may be more
"marketable". Should I buy and learn to work on a TI board with speech/audio
capabilities for this reason? If yes, any recommendations for a TI kit?
Also, my budget is ~$250, should I buy the board direct from Analog/TI or
from a third-party? I would prefer one with a graphical IDE.
TIA,
Siddharth